Reading Challenge – Aurora Public Library District

Read365 with APLD!

Posted on December 27, 2022August 9, 2023 by Olivia

We’re over halfway through the year! Are YOU getting rewarded for reading this year by registering for the Read365 Reading Challenge on Beanstack?

The Aurora Public Library District has created a challenge to read as much as you can in 2023. The more you read, the more chances you’ll get to win a huge prize at the end of the year! Every 20 hours of reading earns you another entry in our prize drawing. You can also earn a ticket by writing reviews on the books you’ve read!

Want to get started? Click this link to find our Beanstack page and register today. This challenge is open to anyone aged 13 or older. If you have any questions, please call 812-926-0646 for more information and follow us on Facebook.

2022 Novelist Reading Challenge: “Maus” by Art Spiegelman

Posted on April 5, 2022March 18, 2022 by Jamie

For the second year in a row, NoveList has created a year long reading challenge to help people stretch their reading comfort zones. The challenge gives 24 prompts for readers: 12 for beginners and 12 for aficionados. My goal is to complete all 24 prompts this year. I’ll be making my way through the list and writing reviews about the books I really like. You can find the full reading challenge here.

First up is prompt #17: Read a graphic novel with black and white illustrations. I don’t typically read graphic novels so I was planning on putting this prompt off until later in the year. Then I saw some new articles about controversy over the Pulitzer Prize-winning graphic novel, Maus by Art Spiegelman. It was removed from the 8th grade curriculum by a Tennessee school board for its “unnecessary use of profanity and nudity and its depiction of violence and suicide.” There is nothing I love more than challenged books, so I knew I needed to read it.

Maus follows the strained relationship between author Art Spiegelman and his aging father, Vladek, a Holocaust survivor. The novel begins in 1978 with a visit between Art and Vladek. It moves between two timelines, intertwining their visits in present day with Vladek’s stories of his life during the Holocaust. We follow Vladek all the way through the war: from his time as a POW, his time in a ghetto, his multiple hiding spots in between, and finally to his time in Auschwitz and Dachau. He tells of the people and family members he met and lost along the way, and the horrors he faced during those six years. The novel ends after Vladek tells the story of his return to his hometown at the end of the war and his reunion with his wife Anya, Art’s mother. The last panel is an image of Anya’s and Vladek’s tombstone. Anya died by suicide in 1968 and Vladek of congestive heart failure in 1982 before the book was completed.

This book was intense, and it took me a while to get through it. I picked it up and read the first part in one sitting. I usually read books in about 2-4 days, but I had to let this one sit for about a week before I could continue. Maus does not gloss over gruesome details of the Holocaust. Vladek tells stories about murder, violence, torture, starvation, medical experimentation, sickness, and suicide. Maus is one of the best books I’ve read in my adult life. It was difficult, but it was a necessary reminder of a terrible part of the world’s history. Spiegelman said it best, “This is disturbing imagery, but you know what? It’s disturbing history.” I highly recommend this book, even if you’ve read other Holocaust stories in the past. The graphic novel format makes the amazing storytelling that much more impactful.

Check Out All the Books I’ve Read for This Challenge

What is a Hoosier, Anyway?

Posted on December 29, 2021January 7, 2022 by Olivia

For almost 200 years, people from Indiana have been calling themselves “Hoosiers”, but every time someone asks where the name came from, an ages-old debate is sparked between favorite wives’ tales and references in literature. It’s time to set the record straight (or at least attempt to do so)! Let’s figure out together what it really means to be a Hoo Hoo Hoo HOOSIER!

The use of the term “Hoosier” first appeared in the 1830s, when a poem by John Finley named “The Hoosier’s Nest” appeared in the Indianapolis Journal in 1833. Since then, the title has been synonymous with the people of Indiana. Several popular theories have sprouted up to explain the word’s origin over time, some more wild and wacky than others. Here are some of the most famous:

Early in Indiana’s beginnings, settlers would answer the door with a quick “Who’s yere?” and the greeting eventually became our title.
Indiana rivermen were notoriously good at silencing subduing their enemies that they became colloquially known as “Hushers”, and the name evolved into “Hoosiers” with our Midwestern accents.
A contractor named Hoosier on the Louisville and Portland Canal preferred to hire his laborers from Indiana, and these men quickly became known as Hoosier’s men”.
The most unbelievable (and gruesome) tall tale comes from James Whitcomb Riley, the famous Hoosier Poet. He stated that the state’s early settlers often took part in rowdy and dangerous fights, sometimes ending in severe bodily harm. Often times, the morning after a major tavern brawl, someone would walk in an find a torn-off ear or two on the floor and ask out loud: “Who’s ear?” Yuck!

What is your favorite theory? I always tell Riley’s story as if it’s truth to all my non-Hoosier friends, just to see the looks on their faces! Do you have any theories on the origins of the Hoosier?

Hoosier Book Challenge on Beanstack!

Posted on October 15, 2021October 26, 2021 by Jamie

Join us for our Hoosier Reading Challenge on Beanstack! Now through December 31st, every time you read or listen to a book by an Indiana author you can track it on the Beanstack app to earn chances to win our prize giveaway! There will be four challenges: ages 0-7, ages 8-13, ages 14-18, and ages 19+. There will be one winner per age group.

How to Sign Up

Account Set-Up Instructions

If you already have a Beanstack account from Summer Reading, skip to the Tracking and Challenge Instructions.

1. Download the Beanstack Tracker app from your app store or visit eapld.beanstack.org.

2. If using a desktop computer, skip to step 6, otherwise tap Let’s Go!

3. Choose the School, Library, or Bookstore option

4. Tap on Find a Site

5. Search for Aurora Public Library. Make sure to select the one in Indiana!

6. Click Sign Up and follow the prompts to create your account and add readers.

* You may add more than one reader to the same account. For example, one account may include a parent and two children, two parents and one child, two adults with no children, etc.

*Parents who do not wish to participate in the challenges should register themselves as Nonreaders and add their children as Readers. This will allow the parent to track their children’s reading, but will not give them the option to track their own.

Tracking and Challenge Instructions

1. Once you are registered, the correct challenge will automatically populate based on the participant’s age. Click or tap on the challenge to join it. Once you join a challenge, you will see all the badges as well as instructions on how to earn them. There are two types of badges.

a. Logging Badges: These are earned by logging your reading. To log, tap on the + Button and select Reading. Choose the correct Reader or multiple Readers if everyone read together. You can search by the book title, scan the ISBN, or enter the information manually.

b. Challenge Badges: These two badges are earned at the beginning and end of the challenge. You will automatically earn the first badge when you join the challenge and the second one when you earn all the logging badges.

2. Every time you earn a badge, you will automatically be entered into the prize drawing. The Beanstack app will randomly choose a winner from the entries accumulated over the course of the challenge.

*If you have multiple Readers on the account you can switch between Readers by tapping on the circle in the top right-hand corner.

Please see a staff member if you have any questions or need assistance with the app.